Signatures in Outlook for XP

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Does anybody know how to make so different accounts in Outlook have their own default signature? It seems to me like you can set a default overall for all accounts, but you cannot set a default for each account individually. When I use different e-mail addresses I would like to have different signatures by default. The way it is now I have to change the signature manually. Thanks for any help.

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

ok...

in Outlook Express you can actually specify for which acct gets which
signature. This is because Outlook is meant to really be used with only 1
email address/acct, given the calendar and all that other stuff.

But this is the easiest way to get around it. I use it this way:

In Outlook > Tools > Options > Mail Format > Signatures is where you
create your signatures. Create as many as you need, and name them
according to your domain name or however you will know which is which.

When you've created the signatures, click OK to return to the Mail Format
window. You will see above the Signatures button, the options to choose
which signature goes for a New Message and for Replies. LEAVE BOTH OF
THESE SET AT <NONE>. Click OK to close the options.

Now open a New Message, and go to Insert > Signatures. You will find the
names of each signature you just created. Select which signature you wish
to apply to that particular message, and BAM....there it is.

Like I said, I use it this way, so it's easy for me. I don't think there's an
easier way.

Hope this helps!

/unflux

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Okay, this might work, but I am not sure I have that option because I am using Outlook integrated with Word. When I goto Insert on an email that im writing there is no signature option that i can click

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

How do I unintegrate Word, and what is the difference if I don't have Word integrated? What capabilities do I lose/gain? Do you know?

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

if you really like using word as your email editor [personally I hate it], then
you are stuck.

Not using Word means very little really. You just won't see the Word
interface, but an actual 'email' one. Try it...

On the Mail Format screen from Options, you will see a checkbox saying
"use Microsoft Word to edit email messages." Simply uncheck it and restart
Outlook. Then open a New message.

/unflux

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Okay I tried that, but now everything appears to be double spaced by default. You know how I can fix that?

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Oh and now the signature button is there like you said it would be, I think Word messes all that up.

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

everything?

the main text and the signature? or just the signature? Do you create your
new messages in html format by default?

I test this out just now and didn't get any spacing issues. Also, do you have
any default fonts set for the types of emails written?

/unflux

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Well I notice that when I insert the signature everything is double spaced. My font is Verdana size 10 for that, and yes its in HTML. To fix it manually I went up to Format->Style and put it from Paragraph style back to Normal style and then all the double spacing goes away. Any ideas?

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

ok for some reason your default Style is Paragraph instead of normal. Let
me see if I can find how to change the default setting. Shouldn't be hard...

/unflux

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Okay I have still been looking haha

Bigwebmaster

Site Admin

Posts: 9105

Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ

3+ Months Ago

Okay weird, maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had made those signatures when I had word integrated. I just remade the signature which looks exactly identical in the signature editor, but now when I insert the signature it stays in Normal mode. Thanks man.

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

ok - yeah

that's actually it...I remember now. Word, since it's a word processor,
handles html-text differently than an html editor would. Word reads the
coding < br > at the end of each line where it should be a &nbsp.

glad it worked!

/unflux

pw_mis_lists

Born

Posts: 2

3+ Months Ago

I have a variant question on this theme. Does anyone know of a registry hack or other method of relocating the signature location from

to another location? Microsofts site is devoid of intelligent information on this subject so I any helpful hints would be appreaicted.

TIA

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

i believe that's actually hardcoded. My company before wanted to store
everything possible on the server, including our signatures with
outlooks. crzy bastards....

anyway I spent many useless hrs looking for info on it and found nothing.
That was a few yrs ago with Office2k tho...might be different with XP,
but my hunch tells me no.

Sorry, but i'm not much help on this one...good luck.

kaneandrew

Born

Posts: 1

Loc: Philadelphia, PA

3+ Months Ago

Here's one for you: How do I make EVERY user have the same confidentiality signature of every email they send?

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

from the same outlook client? you can set the signature to send with
every email account or specify for individual ones. Otherwise, i have no
idea what you mean. Can you be a little more specific?

pw_mis_lists

Born

Posts: 2

3+ Months Ago

I mean that X number of people all using different machines have a need to use the Sames singnatures (Forms). THe Microsoft way seems to be to copy that for each individual person so that the same file appears X times. If you have portable or "floating" setups that means that the same file will appear X times on the network and it would grow geometrically according to the number of people using it. Ie

A single file taking up 10K that goes to 100 people would take up 1000K or 1 meg on the network. If you have 100s of forms that will go into the Gigabyte range for just a few small files.

The way MS seems to handle it is to assume no one would be using the same files so they toitally ignore it.

What I would rather if the signature folder for each of those 100 people was the SAME folder in the SAME place so there is allways 1 and only 1 copy of any given signature\form., not 100s of duplicates.

And we won't talk abou the hassle of keeping all those copies identical!!!!!!!!

Does that help calrify matters?

Dimatson

Novice

Posts: 18

3+ Months Ago

Oh Mighty Guru Techie Dude,
I'm also having a signature problem. I've unchecked the 2 boxes (Options, Mail Format) that say "Use Microsoft Office Word....blah-blah-diddy....).
I finally got my signature for NEW email messages to look normal.
But, when using the SAME signature to reply or forward, sometimes it double-spaces on me.
Actually, it USUALLY double-spaces. But sometimes it doesn't.
I suppose this has to be something to do with the formatting I receive the email in.
Very strange.
Even if I copy the signature from within the Signature box, and paste it into the email (that's creating double-space), it's STILL double spaced.
?!
And REALLY frustrating.
Any ideas?
(Grovel, grovel, grovel) Thanks for your site (Grovel).

Diane

ATNO/TW

Super Moderator

Posts: 23454

Loc: Woodbridge VA

3+ Months Ago

Hello Diane...welcome to OZZU. I don't have the specific answer to your question. Just wanted to welcome you and tell you to "stay tuned" somebody around here probably will.

Dimatson

Novice

Posts: 18

3+ Months Ago

TRIED THE FOLLOWING - and the spaces between the lines of my signature are “cushioned” with an extra area. It’s not extra paragraph marks.
It’s a space above the paragraph mark, and below the paragraph mark.

EXCEPTION: these two lines never have a space between them, for some reason:

I tried the following, and got an extra “line” anyway:
*If I remove extra spaces between lines - there is an extra blank line created
*Changing options - HTML, Rich, plain test - doesn’t affect it
*If I request it to use my fonts only when replying, all the time, use stationary fonts - no help
*If I copy my signature from a new email (uses the same signature) and paste it into the reply that creates an extra line, the once normal signature suddenly sprouts the extra lines.

HOWEVER:
If I copy the signature from WORD and paste it into the reply - it looks normal.

It's easy for most of us to meet expenses.
We meet them everywhere we turn.

*********Does anyone else have this problem with Outlook + XP?
Please let me know - either way, so I know if I should try reinstalling Outlook.

Thank you Mighty Techno Gurus!
Diane

Dimatson

Novice

Posts: 18

3+ Months Ago

Upon further futzing around, discovered that if someone SENDS me a plain text message, it messes up my own signature when I reply.
Is there a fix, or is this some horrendous glitch that Microsoft will, I pray, fix in the future.
Maybe if I mailed the "Yup, It Works" folks a nest of really ticked off hornets they'd get the picture......

Anyone got any ideas? Or am I stuck.

Thanks Mighty Gurus!
(grovel, grovel)
Diane

UNFLUX

Genius

Posts: 6367

Loc: twitter.com/unflux

3+ Months Ago

well, my first idea to have you try, you already say doesn't work.
which is changing your type of message from html, rich text, or
plain text.

I know for a fact that if you use Microsoft Word as the editor of
your email messages, it doesn't handle returns the same as
Outlook's built-in text editor. So my next suggestion is to be
sure that Outlook is NOT using Word as the creator of your emails.

i also just tried a combination of different things and can't
reproduce your problem on my machine. Have you created
your signature in Outlook from scratch? or did you paste it in?
Have you take steps to hold shift+enter for your breaks? try
that if you haven't as well.

whosonthedexs

Student

Posts: 72

Loc: UK

3+ Months Ago

In reply to the multiple users and single signature question thats started the post...

Couple of things...

What email server software do you use?? (Exchange?)

If so what version?

Do you have any content filtering services running on your email servers?

Dimatson

Novice

Posts: 18

3+ Months Ago

First, THANKS so very much for your help Mighty Techno Gurus!

*UNFLUX - I've made sure that Outlook is NOT using Word as the creator of my emails - both those boxes were unchecked long ago.

*UNFLUX #2 - You couldn't recreate my problem? My husband did. He sent himself a text email message, and tried to reply with a signature - and it did the double-space thingy. He says others in his office have the same complaint. I'm not just going nuts! It's not just my machine!

UNLFUX #2 - Have you created your signature in Outlook from scratch?

Or yes. Many times.

*or did you paste it in?

Tried both, actually. Same result.
I have the same signature set for new email, as well as replies. When replying to text sent email, if I copy the signature from within a new email (which looks fine), it even PASTES in with the double-space. If I copy the signature from a Word doc - it pastes in without the double-space.
It isn't exactly a double space though. It's an extra space between the lines. My signature includes a blank line after my name, and before my phone number - that line seems to have an extra space above and below the paragraph mark.

*Have you take steps to hold shift+enter for your breaks?

Nope. Hang on......Nope. Just created a new signature, using Shift+Enter for my line breaks. Didn't do squat.

*WHOSONTHEDEX - What email server software do you use??

Microsoft Outlook 2003, running on XP.

*Do you have any content filtering services running on your email servers?

I've blocked some SPAM email addresses, but that's it. I think. Where would I go check this?

Thanks for all your ideas. I'm ever so grateful.
Happy to test everything you can think up.
It's looking more and more like Microsoft messed up though....

Hanging in there,
Diane

Dimatson

Novice

Posts: 18

3+ Months Ago

Another techie guru emailed me privately.
I had to use advance edit - this is the missing key!
Use the shift+return for a soft carriage return.
Save the signature,
Paste signature into the email (not sure if this step is necessary, or just the one above).
Ta-Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Bliss!

Thanks Everyone!
Diane

Lestat

Born

Posts: 4

3+ Months Ago

Remove your signature completely.
Retype in your new one.
Instead of hitting return after each line, hold the shift key+return key.
Trust me, I looked ALL OVER for that one.